Red Cedar Zen is happy to announce a 6-week exploration of the teachings and practices of Soto Zen, and Red Cedar's way of practicing Zen, with Seiu Hannah Sullivan and Myoki Raizelah Bayen.
Our gateway into Zen will be the book What Is Zen? by Norman Fischer and Sue Moon. Their book offers a friendly and accessible deep dive into the style of Soto Zen we practice here at Red Cedar. Studying the book together with sangha friends guided by two of our experienced teachers is a wonderful way to learn more about what we do together and to nourish and deepen your practice.
The class will be offered on Monday nights in our Zoom Zendo (online) beginning September 9th. Please see the following link for additional details regarding this class and how you can join us.
What is Zen?
We'll be taking the week of from our weekly Thursday evening in person practice at Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship to observe the 4th of July holiday. This program continues next week.
The wonderful talks shared at this year's Samish sesshin are now available in the community's Dharma Talks Library and linked directly below.
A master of ancient Chinese poetry and the search for a lost tradition. Bill Porter, who goes by the pen name Red Pine, is recognized as a living gateway to ageless Chinese history and culture. He has published over thirty books, including Road to Heaven, his quest to find hermits in the Zhongnan Mountains that reignited a movement in modern China to seek enlightenment through poetry and mountain solitude.
The new film, Dancing with the Dead: Red Pine and the Art of Translation, follows Bill’s adventures as a child of a bank robber, raised in a gilded household, who turned his back on American devotion to materialism and went off to live in monasteries and mountains in Taiwan. He pursued a fascination with Buddhism and poetry and traveled to remote regions of China to rediscover an ancient tradition of mountain hermits vital to Chinese culture.
Following the film, will be a Q & A with Ward Serrill followed by a live performance by Spring Cheng. Spring is a Bellingham Artist and Native Chinese whose poetry-music is featured in the movie.
Additional information and tickets can be found at: https://www.pickfordfilmcenter.org/movie/dancing-with-the-dead-red-pine-and-the-art-of-translation-2/
This month’s featured sangha member (and related story) is Kandō Rei Greene. Rei was an indisputably needed component of the sangha’s recent Japan pilgrimage. She worked with Nomon Tim for nearly two years on backbone planning and was indispensable in-country as the interpreter and group leader. I heard again and again how much Rei was appreciated for her organization and tremendous support once in Japan. Deep bows!
I spoke with Rei recently to learn more about how her Japan journey began over 20 years ago, and how her love of Japan continues still.
Desiree: How did that first trip to Japan unfold?
Rei: The first time I had the chance to travel and live in Japan was through winning one of two scholarship offerings, back around 2002. The scholarship was for a one-year stay in Japan as an exchange student, and took place during half of my junior year and into half of my senior year in high school.
My parents - especially my mother - were furious! Not only about going, but applying in the first place, without permission! However, despite “initial grounding,” I obviously went, then went back after my first year in college to teach English.
Desiree: What did you especially enjoy this trip?
Rei: I loved connecting with the Japanese people once again. It was so enjoyable to interact with the three bilingual tour guides and I was so happy to be reconnected with my host family!
Desiree: What were some other highlights?
Rei: I really enjoyed meeting the “Marathon Monk”, Dai Ajari-sama, who ran marathons before regular practice and achieved the 7 year, 1,000 day challenge that only 46 men have completed since 1885.
Also enjoyable was tasting the delicious shojin-ryori or temple food, experiencing the small and quite strenuous part of the Kumano-kodo pilgrimage trail, and visiting the nun’s training monastery. And, of course, visiting Shunryu Suzuki’s family at Rinso-in was very warm and enjoyable.
Desiree: Any last words?
Rei: Despite worries about transportation, especially buses and coming together with everyone, everything worked out well.
I’m so grateful that everyone involved were seasoned travelers who were very independent and resourceful! I’m so grateful for the trust that I received from everyone and for the generosity of the sangha to make it possible for me to return to this place I love! Thank you!
___
Thank you, Kando Rei, for the tremendous energy in planning, organizing and carrying everyone through this journey...such a gift!
~Much gratitude, IkuShun Desiree
RCZC now has a YouTube channel for Dharma talks! New talks will be posted to both YouTube and the RCZC website and, in time, historical talks will also be posted to the new channel.
To see a teacher's talk notes you will still need to go to the Dharma Talks library on the RCZC website, but YouTube is very convenient for streaming talks on your phone or tablet.
YouTube Channel (Click Subscribe for notification of new posts)
Website Dharma Talks Library
The Fresno Zen Group with it's guiding teacher, Grace Shireson, is no longer meeting in person and has generously offered to donate their main altar, cushions, and other Zen gear to the sangha.
The trick is, it is all in storage in Fresno, California.
Fancy a road trip to California to pick it up for RCZC? Hiking in the Sierras and then driving this wonderful donation back to Bellingham?
A vehicle with a trailer hitch that a U-Haul trailer could be hooked to comes to mind as one way this could be accomplished.
Please contact Nomon Tim if you are interested in helping the sangha!
From the June 2024 Red Cedar Zen newsletter:
From Nomon Tim
I've been feeling anew into how hard it is to prioritize my own needs lately.
Like so many in the sangha my life has become a life in service to so many others. To my children and step children, to my staff at work, to you my dear sangha, and of course to my wonderful wife. And this is truly wondrous - it opens and nourishes my heart to support, to help, to connect, and to love others. I am blessed to be in relationship with so many wonderful people. It's incredible. Truly.
And yet there's often an imbalance. If I perceive a need someone has, before I know it, I've dropped everything. A powerful impulse in me to help others takes the wheel. And there's no pausing to think, what do I need here? What are my priorities?
I do have a lovely (and quite privileged) life, don't get me wrong: I'm not complaining. But I am noticing that I often miss chances to nourish myself and my deeper passions.
From time to time, this all catches up with me. Years can go by and areas of interest that deeply feed me gets no attention. Mostly this seems to be because I'm too busy doing everything else, and so much of that everything else is for others.
I do know, at some level anyway, that if I take care of myself more fully, truly nourish myself, I'll actually be of more use to others. I'll show up more fully as a warmer, clearer and more loving presence. There's something to filling my own cup that matters. That there's a win-win possible here. That it doesn't have to be a tug-of-war between me and everything else.
This is an area I've been working on for some decades to be honest! Some years ago I was listening to the Canadian folk singer Brucc Cockburn and some lines to his poignant song "Pacing the Cage" just about knocked me flat:
I never knew what you all wanted, So I gave you everything
That's what I do!! I realized at the time. All the time! Including the lack of feeling into (or asking!) what's really, truly needed here.
Our vow to save all beings, I'm reminding myself, radically and completely includes ourselves.
How does this work in your life? Is this imbalance there at times? Often?! This can run deep.
Let's support each other by each of us taking better care of ourselves. By treasuring ourselves as fully as we treasure others.
So, if I don't call back right away, I hope you can celebrate with me. Maybe I'll be out in nature, or finally working on my Spanish, or playing guitar. I'll get back to you soon for sure, and I'll be glad to connect, but not until I've given myself some time and love first!
Warmly, Nomon Tim
p.s. And please don't read these thoughts and worry about me or hesitate to ask if there's something I can do for you. No need to protect me from myself! Do ask, I do care and I want to know. And...I'll have the opportunity to practice balancing my needs with the needs of others. We take care of each other in so many ways.
Nomon Tim Burnett is Red Cedar Zen Community's Guiding Teacher
Sangha Members, Family and Friends,
I am sorry to inform you that our dear sangha member Ryushin Kate Korn-McKenna has contracted COVID and, as a result, tomorrow's Completion of Training Ceremony has been canceled. This special ceremony will be rescheduled for a date yet to be determined.
Please send your well wishes to Ryushin Kate, and contact admin@redcedarzen.org if you have any questions.
This past week we had a few cancellations for the sesshin, which has opened a handful of spaces for you to join us. As of this writing we have:
Please remember that to attend for second half you must have attended a Samish sesshin previously, and you must register for the Zoom option to attend as much of the full zendo schedule as you have time for.
All are welcome join the Dharma Talks on a drop-in basis online or in person.
Please see the following link for more details regarding the sesshin, and email admin@redcedarzen.org if you have any questions.
Samish Sesshin with Zoketsu Norman Fischer and Nomon Tim Burnett
Red Cedar Zen Community is a 501(c) non-profit organization.
